Sigh… parenting, on some days, can be anything but funny! Do you remember those images you had of parenting your children, before you had children? I thought that children just slept, ate and listened. I was a pretty compliant kid so I thought that my kids would be the same. Well, little did I know that I signed up for the most challenging job in the universe!

Well, as you may have read in my other blogs, I am a mother of 3 for almost one year now. My baby turns 1 next week followed by his sister turning 5 the very next day. Talk about fertile times for Mommy, huh?!? I thought one was hard, two was very hard and three children seems like a marathon without an end line!

The days are long, but my third baby’s first year passed by faster than I would like to admit. I love his non-verbal giggles and smiles, but soon they will be replaced with demands and complaints, just like his older brother and sister. Needless to say, it is a very difficult job to manage three children’s needs on a daily basis while working… even if it is out of my home (which by the way, I find to be harder than working outside of the home sometimes!). There have been days where I thought I might not be able to get through until bed time, but by the grace of goodness, I have! I even live on to tell you that the way I got through it is I laughed. Yup, I laughed at things that had a fellow mom told me, I would have laughed even though they are not funny when they happen to me. Yes, I laughed… out loud, and get this, the kids laughed with me!

I was so proud of myself when I turned an almost complete meltdown into a laugh-fest! I used a different voice, made some jokes and I got through the moment. “Could it be if I laugh more, so will the kids?” I asked myself. Well, it’s been nearly four weeks since I started this experiment and I can honestly say that I am less ragged by the end of the night and the kids seem to be more willing to take on my challenge to put on their pajamas as fast as they can before the tickle monster puts on her pajamas first (the tickle monster is me, by the way!).

So, my fellow mothers, in the midst of the chaos, laugh… and when the kids are in bed, pour yourself a big glass of wine and put your feet up!

About the Author:Dr. Liz Matheis is a clinical psychologist and school psychologist in Parsippany, NJ who provides assessment, psychotherapy, consulting, and advocacy for children and families managing autism spectrum disorders, ADHD and learning disabilities (www.psychconsult.weebly.com). She is also a contributor to several popular press magazines.